Suffolk County's Only Mobile Stroke Units

Suffolk County residents will soon have one more reason to look to Stony Brook Medicine for the highest level of care for both ischemic stroke (when a clot blocks the flow of blood to the brain) and hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding within the brain tissue).

In April 2019, Stony Brook Medicine will launch Long Island’s first mobile stroke unit program designed to provide specialized, life-saving care to people within the critical moments of stroke before they even get to the hospital. This revolutionary pre-hospital process will markedly accelerate the time to making an accurate stroke diagnosis, allow for time-sensitie stroke therapies to be administered earlier, and allow for the transport of stroke patients directly to the most appropriate hospital for the level of care they require, the first time. The result will be more lives saved, and better outcomes through earlier interventions. While new to Long Island, mobile stroke units have successfully reduced stroke disability and have improved survival rates in other major metropolitan areas across the country.

“Time is brain”Perhaps you’ve heard the expression, “Time is brain.” It’s a reminder that when you have a stroke and the brain cannot get the blood and oxygen it needs, brain cells die. To put this in perspective, it’s estimated that when a blood vessel supplying the brain is blocked, nearly two million brain cells are lost for each minute that passes, making stroke one of the most time-sensitive diagnoses in medicine. The faster blood flow can be restored to the brain, the more likely that a person will have a full recovery.

A mobile ER with telehealth capabilityEach mobile stroke unit is a mobile stroke emergency room (ER) with telehealth capability to Stony Brook University Hospital. This will allow Stony Brook Medicine physicians at the hospital to determine if a person has a blocked vessel or bleeding in the brain. Once that is determined, the stroke first responders onboard the mobile stroke unit can begin administering time-sensitive, advanced stroke treatments while the person is en route to the nearest hospital that can provide them with the appropriate level of care.

Medications, including the clot busting agent tPA, which, when administered intravenously, is known as IV tPA.

Brain imaging equipment, including a CT scanner that can perform both a standard head CT scan as well as a CT scan angiogram (which looks at , in detail, blood vessels throughout the body). These scans allow doctors to immediately check for bleeding in the brain and determine whether a person has a blocked blood vessel, and immediately initiate treatment with IV tPA (when indicated).

Improving the chances of a good outcome The mobile stroke units will greatly improve the chances of a good outcome because it allows the physicians back at Stony Brook University Hospital to more rapidly identify if someone is a candidate for a mechanical thrombectomy, which is a procedure to remove clots that block large vessels. The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association now recommends for selected acute ischemic stroke patients to receive mechanical thrombectomy as the standard of care. However, an individual must get to a hospital with the physician experts and technology to perform a mechanical thrombectomy early enough to get the most benefit from the treatment. With the introduction of the mobile stroke unit program, more people will be candidates for treatment if they are rapidly identified and transported to the nearest comprehensive stroke center early for these time-sensitive interventional therapies.

Available at a moment's noticeThe mobile stroke units will be available seven days a week, from 8 am to 8 pm, which is the window of time when most stroke calls are received in Suffolk County. One will be strategically stationed at a base station located off of the Long Island Expressway at Exit 57. The other will be stationed similarly off of Exit 68. These locations were chosen for easy East West and North South access. The team will take calls within a 10-mile radius of each base, which includes about 40 different communities. Stony Brook Medicine is collaborating with over 40 emergency medical service (EMS) agencies throughout Suffolk County to provide this lifesaving, time-sensitive care.